The woodland chapel, power cuts and reconciliation ........

My first thoughts on seeing the Vicarage Wood was what a wonderful, serene woodland Chapel it would make.

What a lovely space to sit on a summers morning and to rehearse the words of the Te Deum:

O Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine heritage. 
Govern them and lift them up for ever. 

 What I didn't think was that here was risk and hidden danger. 

 At least not until 5 00 am or thereabouts on Wednesday when the whole house was plunged into darkness.

 After checking, clearly we had no power, but there was power in the Church and in the Church Hall, then we discovered that a tree had been blown down in the storm the previous night bringing our power supply with it.

We had seven for lunch and a meeting in the Vicarage.

Ultimately the main casualty was the Lent Group which had to be cancelled, trying to re-enact The Greatest Showman as charades by candlelight seemed a challenge to far.

And then it transpired that the oil feed to the boiler and the Rayburn had been affected and, as I write on Friday, there is still no heating.

So thick sweaters and double duvets and outdoor clothing indoors is the order of the day.

Watching the workmen from Northern Power was intriguing as a new power pole was erected and secured and the power supply reconnected.

The work was carried out efficiently and effectively but as the first person on the scene commented not without risk as live wires were trapped under the fallen trunk and had to be released before the cable could be lifted into place.

It took a team of engineers, who worked together efficiently and capably and to great effect,  for power to be restored. Alleluja!

To Thee all Angels cry aloud: the Heavens and all the powers therein. 

 It is possibly too big a leap to make between power being restored and reconciliation but sometimes preachers make the big leap from the story they give as an example and the message they wish to share. ( It is always interesting to note that it usually the story that is remembered, not always the point that the story was meant to be illustrating) but reconciliation comes from a Greek word, allasso, meaning change or exchange.

So we changed our status from warm to cold and back to warm again so in that sense whilst we did not become reconciled to the cold, it is still March of course, we will be happy enough to become reconciled to the warm when it returns.

I am reading the Archbishop's Lent Book this Lent, the title is: Reconciliation.

As I read I find myself reflecting on how urgently necessary reconciliation is, in my own family at a very personal level after two bereavements there is a need for the remaining members of the family to be reconciled.

Clearly as a nation after the ill judged referendum and the long, tiresome debates about Brexit, whatever happens whether as The Clash sang, we stay or we go, there will be a need for reconciliation.

And, in the wider geo-political context, especially reading in Genesis of God's promise to Abraham about his descendants we need to seek reconciliation in respect of the children of Abraham both Jewish, Christian and Islamic all of whom are: Children of Abraham.

I recall the speech that Colonel Tim Collins made in Kuwait hours before British troops entered into battle in Iraq.

He reminded his troops, as Genesis reminds us, that Iraq is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the Birthplace of Abraham.

Collins expected of his troops a generosity of spirit in battle and in victory.

Sadly of course in the aftermath of that war reconciliation is still very much  needed.

As God promised Abraham; to your descendants I give this land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates.

So we petition as we sing the the Te Deum:

O Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine heritage. 
Govern them and lift them up for ever. 


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